Fort de France

We went to Fort de France this morning ...but it was closed. It’s the day before Christmas Eve and the whole of the capital was deserted! Ok, it was Sunday so I wasn’t expecting EVERYTHING to be open - but even McDonald’s was shut! To be honest I was secretly glad we didn’t have to hang around there as I think it’s a bit of a dump. From the approach road it looks like some dirty polluted shanty town. The shops are full of expensive old tat (unless of course you’re after some shiny red underwear, gold stilettos, a Martinique ash tray and a tortoise made out of old banana leaves), and if you want to park on a meter you have to buy a ‘parking card’ from a shop in advance (I was told this last time I was there by a fierce traffic warden lady who intercepted me as I was trying to work out where to put my coins. When I enquired as to where I might purchase such an item she looked at me as if I were completely retarded and said; ‘At the photocopying shop of course’. Erm... ok.)

So we went to the beach at Tartane instead. We’ve had a few days of enforced relaxation due to K’s chest infection so all my plans for horse riding and kayaking have been put on hold. But no one is complaining, least of all me. I was exhausted after the last few weeks at school and I think I needed a few days of lazing about as much as my guests did.

The sea was gorgeously refreshing today. It can be a bit wild here depending on where you go -the first time we went to the beach I made the mistake of taking us to one with huge waves and Mum kept getting knocked over by the force of them, taking me with her and leading to much hilarity and salty spluttering and sand in knickers - but today we went to a much calmer bay where we splashed and floated in clear still water and our swim was altogether more civilised.

Sorry I’ve not been blogging as much since my guests’ arrival but three people make a LOT more mess than one and I feel like all my free time is spent washing up or sweeping or doing washing at the moment! And despite all this, my insect killing routine is slipping dangerously out of control (I found two dead cockroaches in the house this week and we’ve all been bitten by evil mosquitoes more than once). I need to educate my guests on mozzie massacre. Right – that’s a job for tonight then.